Full Notification

This crime prevention message is being sent by email only (no accompanying text message):

A Livingston County resident was recently victimized by the scam described below, whereby the criminals obtained access to their bank and credit card accounts.

The scammers running this type of fraud pretend they are from Microsoft or “Windows” when they telephone and claim that they have learned that the resident’s computer has been infected with a virus that will cause the home computer become unusable.

The ultimate goal of the fraud varies depending upon the con artists running it. For example, they may try to sell the victim phony anti-virus protection or trick the victim into providing bank or credit card information. Yet others convince the victim to allow remote access to their computer.

These scams typically originate from outside the country, making successful prosecution extremely difficult or unlikely.

The best response to this scam is to just hang up the phone.

Remember that 911 is the appropriate phone number for ALL requests for police/fire/medical in Livingston County, it’s not just for emergencies.